| Sun ONE Meta-Directory 5.1.1 Product Brief |
Preface
The Meta-Directory Product Brief describes key concepts of Sun ONETM Meta-Directory software. This preface contains the following sections:
What You are Expected to KnowThis Product Brief is intended for use by system administrators. Before reading this guide, you should be familiar with Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) as well as the Windows NT or the Solaris Operating System on the servers on which Meta-DirectoryTM is installed.
The Sun ONE Meta-Directory Documentation SetThe Sun ONE Meta-Directory 5.1.1 documentation set includes the following materials:
- Sun ONE Meta-Directory Deployment Guide describes the Sun ONE Meta-Directory software and how to plan and implement a Sun ONE Meta-Directory software solution.
- Sun ONE Meta-Directory Installation Guide gives instructions on how to install the Sun ONE Meta-Directory software on both SolarisTM and Windows NT systems.
- Sun ONE Meta-Directory Product Brief (this guide) documents key concepts of the Sun ONE Meta-Directory.
- Sun ONE Meta-Directory Administration Guide documents how to set up and manage the Sun ONE Meta-Directory software. Configuring the Join Engine and components as well as managing the system from the Console and the command-line are addressed.
- Release Notes include information about what is new in this release, last minute installation tips, known software limitations, and how to report problems.
Organization of This GuideThe table below lists and briefly describes the content of the Product Brief:
Documentation ConventionsIn all Sun ONE Meta-Directory documentation, certain typographic conventions and terminology are used to simplify discussion and to help better understand the material.
Typographic Conventions
This book uses the following typographic conventions:
- Italic type is used within text for book titles, new terminology, emphasis, and words used in the literal sense.
- Monospace font is used for sample code and code listings, API and language elements (such as function names and class names), filenames, pathnames, directory names, HTML tags, and any text that must be typed on the screen.
- Italic serif font is used within code and code fragments to indicate variable placeholders. For example, the following command uses filename as a variable placeholder for an argument to the gunzip command:
gunzip -d filename .tar.gz
Terminology
Below is a list of the general terms that are used in the Sun ONE Meta-Directory documentation set:
- Meta-Directory refers to Sun ONE Meta-Directory software and any installed instances of the Sun ONE Meta-Directory software.
- Meta-Directory components refers to the collective set of Sun ONE Meta-DirectoryTM components and software you have installed and running on your system, including the Join Engine and any external data source connectors.
- External data source refers to any user data that originates outside of the core Meta-Directory components, whether the data is coming from another database, directory server, data file, or other source of data.
- Directory Server refers to an installed instance of Sun ONE Directory ServerTM, iPlanet Directory Server and Netscape Directory Server.
The Sun ONE Meta-Directory software can synchronize data using any LDAPv2 and LDAPv3-compliant directory server, as long as the LDAP server supports a change log mechanism similar to the one implemented in Netscape Directory Server 4.1x. The term Directory Server refers to the instances of iPlanet Directory Server and Netscape Directory Server that you have installed to work with iPlanet Meta-Directory.
- Similarly the term Administration Server refers to an installed instance of Sun ONE Administration Server, whether it be used with the Meta-Directory components or another Sun ONE server.
- NETSITE_ROOT is a variable placeholder for the home directory where you have installed the Sun ONE Meta-Directory software and any other Sun ONE servers installed into the same server group.
- The term flow is used rather loosely to refer to the process of synchronizing data between an external data source and the Meta View. You ‘flow’ data through a connector to the Connector View and then ‘flow’ it to the Meta View. The contrary is also true, you ‘flow’ data from the Meta View back to the Connector Views and out to the external data sources.
Where to Find Additional InformationIn addition to the Sun ONE Meta-Directory documentation set, you should be familiar with the documentation for products that are used in conjunction with it. Of particular interest are the Sun ONE Console and Sun ONE Directory Server documentation set. This section lists additional sources of information you may find helpful as you use the Sun ONE Meta-Directory software.
Sun ONE Console Documentation
You can find the Sun ONE Console documentation at the following site:
http://docs.sun.com/db/prod/s1.ipconsole.2
Sun ONE Directory Server Documentation
You can find the Sun ONE Directory Server documentation at the following site:
http://docs.sun.com/db/prod/s1.ipdirs
Directory Server Developer Information
In addition to the Directory Server documentation, you can find information on Meta-Directory, LDAP, the iPlanet Directory Server, and associated technologies at the following Sun ONE developer sites:
http://www.sun.com/developers/
Other Sun ONE Product Documentation
Documentation for all Sun ONE servers and technologies can be found at the following web site:
http://docs.sun.com/db/prod/sunone
Sun ONE Technical Support
You can contact Sun ONE Technical Support through the following location:
Your Feedback on the DocumentationSun Microsystems is interested in improving this documentation and welcomes your comments and suggestions. Use the following web-based form to provide feedback to us:
http://www.sun.com/hwdocs/feedback/
Please provide the full document title and part number in the appropriate fields. The part number can be found on the title page of the book or at the top of the document, and is usually a seven or nine digit number. For example, the part number of the Sun ONE Meta-Directory Installation Guide is 817-3896-10.
